Week 43 - Food Mashups

The Week 43 theme was food mashups. I think when I first saw it, it was late at night, and I couldn't even comprehend what that meant. After reading some of the comments on Reddit, it made so much more sense. Cheeseburger pie, cheeseburger pizza, sushi burritos, baked potato pizza, the possibilities were pretty much endless. Honestly, it's also very similar to how we eat these days anyway, pairing all sorts of dishes with tots or pasta since they're easier for B to eat than some of the other smaller grains. I wanted to do something a little more composed though, so after reading over a few different recipes for taco pasta, I came up with a plan.

The ingredients for our food mashup were:

- 1 box of chickpea rotini ($2.12)

- 1 tbsp olive oil ($0.10)

- 1 yellow onion ($0.45)

- 1 red bell pepper ($1.50)

- 1 green bell pepper ($0.90)

- 1 heaping spoonful of minced garlic ($0.10)

- 1 package of TJ's beefless beef ($2.99)

- 3 scallions ($0.40)

- about 1/2 bottle of Pace mild salsa ($1.34)

- a few large spoonfuls of sour cream ($0.59)

- a few handfuls of shredded cheddar cheese ($1.20)

- taco seasoning: chili powder, coriander, paprika, salt, freshly ground black pepper, garlic powder, cumin, oregano (didn't measure, just eyeballed it and adjusted to taste) ($0.50)

It's a little hard to estimate the cost of this one since most of it was not measured, but the approximate amount was $12.19. It was enough for dinner for the three of us, plus a little extra for brunch the next day.

The steps for making the pasta were:

1. Prep - cook pasta, chop onion, chop red pepper, chop green pepper, chop scallions, make taco seasoning.

2. Heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onions and cook until translucent, then add peppers. Once peppers have softened a bit, add garlic, cook for a minute or so, and then add beefless beef. Add the taco seasoning, and make sure everything is mixed together well. Add water, a tbsp or so at a time, as needed if everything starts to stick at any point during the cooking process.

3. Add half the salsa and mix into the beef mixture. Taste and add seasonings if needed (didn't add anything here).

4. Add pasta into the skillet with the beef mixture, and mix together well. Add sour cream and the other half of the salsa, and make sure everything is coated well. Sprinkle in some cheddar cheese and stir in well. [I originally had only added a small amount of salsa, but after tasting it with the sour cream, it needed more. I like how it turned out, adding more salsa in this step, so I've written it as we made it.]

5. Serve in bowls, topped with additional cheese if desired!

You might notice that I haven't actually referred to the name of the dish in this post, only mentioning that I looked at recipes for taco pasta or that I made pasta. The main reason for that is that the name evolved as I was making it. I intended first for it to be taco pasta, more Mexican-style with onions and cilantro, but then I didn't want to buy a package of cilantro just for this (and also wasn't in the mood to clean and chop it). So I switched it to an American-style taco with chopped tomato and cheddar cheese, but then our tomato was just on the edge of going bad, so that was out. I thought maybe it should be burrito pasta, but there were no beans in it, so then I realized what corresponded best to what I made - quesadilla pasta! There was a beefless beef filling and cheese, plus salsa and sour cream, which you would normally find on the side of a quesadilla. Perfect name for our mashup.

As for the taste, we really liked it. I didn't think using the Pace salsa instead of just seasonings would make that much of a difference, but it did. Very happy with our choice to buy that, and that it added so much flavor while being mild enough for B to eat. Would make this again!